Fire district picks 911 provider

After months of questions, concerns, debates, informational open houses, scheduled and special meetings, the Fox River and Countryside Fire/Rescue District made the expected announcement Monday night that it has chosen American Emergency Services to provide its 911 services.

The fire district board unanimously approved a motion to accept the proposal of American Emergency Services and directed board President Jim Gaffney and attorney Ken Shepro to bring a final contract to the board for approval.

That contract figures to be in the $1.7 million range per year to have 17 to 19 firefighters and paramedics from the Wheaton-based American Emergency Services working out of two stations in the district — one in Campton Township that will be built at the corner of School Road and Route 64, and one that will be part of a renovated building in South Elgin at the corner of Gilberts Street and Route 25.

Gaffney said American Emergency Services has committed to working out a five-year contract, with only 2 percent increases per year over the five years after the base cost is established for the first year.

“We did agree that we would talk about revisiting the contract if health-care costs go up, as none of us know for sure what the Obama health care costs will ultimately be,” Gaffney said.

The move to the private-company American Emergency Services ends a decades-long agreement with the St. Charles Fire Department to provide emergency services.

“It was no surprise to us,” said St. Charles Fire Chief Pat Mullen. “We’ve said all along that we have no standing to tell them what they should do. They know what they have to do now and they’ll move forward, and we’ve got to make our adjustments and move forward.”

The board also approved the sale of $2 million in general obligation debt certificates that will be needed for equipment and the station projects, with the new service and new stations earmarked for a May 1 start.

Gaffney told the board that the equipment has been ordered and the district will be ready when the stations open.

The board has cited the district’s financial plight as the main reason for changing providers, saying if it did not look at proposals for future service and consider building its own stations, it would be out of money by 2013.

“Before we totally got into it, when I was prorating St. Charles out at 21 percent over five years, we were heading towards $3 million (per year) at the end of five years,” Gaffney said. “We felt by doing the same thing, just on a different plane you might say, we were ending up at about $2.1 million and we could work back from there.”

By having the $1.7 million as the talking point with American Emergency Services, Gaffney is confident the district will come in below his original $2.1 million projection.

“There may be some adjustment because of the health insurance, we just don’t know yet,” Gaffney said. “Right now AES has all of the personnel, but we may have to take a couple of the personnel and put them on full-time to meet all of the requirements of the federal government, so the contract could go to $1.5 million if we had to pick up personnel.”

Gaffney estimated that the new station along Route 64 would cost the district about $575,000 and the district is in “high gear” to get it completed on time. The renovation project at the Gilberts Street site could cost $40,000 or less, he said.

“We feel we will be at the Gilberts site for two or more years, and will keep our options open for a permanent site in the future.”

In other district business, Shepro advised the board that the village of Campton Hills is preparing to ask residents in a nonbinding April referendum if the village should investigate starting its own fire department.

“If the village started its own department and left the fire district, the impact could be $700,000 in lost tax revenue, while Elburn Countryside and Fire could lose up to $1 million in tax revenue per year,” Shepro said.

Shepro added that even if the referendum passed and an eventual binding referendum passed, it would be 2013 or 2014 before Campton Hills had its own fire department.

The citizen’s advisory committee and district board members will host another informational open house at 7 p.m. Thursday for Fox Mill residents at the Congregational Church on La Fox Road.